


Things Change

by found_the_good_things



Category: We Are The Tigers - Allen
Genre: Gen, checkate is past, one-sided checkate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29394321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/found_the_good_things/pseuds/found_the_good_things
Summary: ♟️theyre fighting againmy earbuds broke and it got too loud and then i leftim fine thoyou dont have to come get me~TW in the notes
Relationships: Chess & Kate (We Are The Tigers), Chess/Kate (We Are The Tigers)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	Things Change

**Author's Note:**

> hi!!!! this is inspired by the amazing fic a little bit of light, by @/moxy-by-proxy on tumblr and @/practically_paige on ao3!!! also reese picking kate up is based on the line where kate asks why reese didn't tell her she was on the team, which implies they were sort of friends.  
> tw:  
> \- lots and lots of mentions of chess  
> \- a mention of a small injury and blood  
> \- death/grief  
> \- shouting  
> \- bad parenting  
> \- mildly getting overwhelmed

Kate hits the volume button on her phone six times before they realize that the reason the volume isn't getting louder is because it's already as high as it can get. It still can't block out the screaming, though.

She can't figure out exactly how they're feeling right now. It feels like it should be obvious, but it's not.

(Emotions tend to blend together a lot for Kate - frustration and exhaustion and sadness and all sorts of other things are all emotions she logically knows the differences between, and they know that nobody else ever seems to feel like this. Every time they have to say how a poem or something made them feel in English class, all she can do is say "I don't know" and then feel bad when her teacher moves onto the next kid with a disappointed expression.)

All Kate knows is that it's not a good feeling. It's turning in her stomach, clawing up her throat, making their skin feel too tight and their walls feel too close and makes every song feel wrong and makes the dark feel too dark, but then makes turning on the lights too bright.

Kate has been gritting her teeth and bearing it for two hours, just like normal, but then her right earbud stops playing music. Kate fiddles with the headphone jack, but nothing helps - the right side is dead.

That's the breaking point.

Kate sits up and fumbles for her shoes, not even bothering to tie them (even though there's a fond voice in their ear, saying "God, do you ever tie your laces?") and pulls up her hood, almost tripping over a towel on the floor. They pause at the door, hand on the doorknob, and it's several seconds before she psyches herself up to open it and run downstairs.

It's not like they had a reason to be afraid. Mr and Mrs Dalton are in their room with the door closed (doesn't stop the yelling from being too loud, too much), and probably don't even notice Kate running down the stairs and wrenching the door open and slamming it shut. They never notice.

It's warm for early October, but Kate is still shivering as they walk aimlessly down the street, speeding up between streetlights. She finds a rock and kicks it for an entire block, but then it skips into the street and Kate hates how just losing a stupid rock makes the lump in her throat a thousand times worse.

Kate takes out their phone and tries three times to open it, their fingers already too numb to hit the keys properly.

("Why do you have a _password_ for your phone? Just use a number, it's so much easier, you always spell everything wrong anyways." "Shut up." "Sorry. You know I'm not trying to be mean, right?" "... I know. Thanks.")

_You shouldn't text her._

_There's nothing she can do._

_She's not fucking here._

♟️

theyre fighting again

my earbuds broke and it got too loud and then i left

im fine tho

you dont have to come get me

Kate chooses to ignore the fact that Chess isn't coming, not because Kate told her not to, but because she can't.

~

It's so cold, so much colder than it was earlier, when Kate walked home from school.

("Why do you never bring a jacket?" "Because you always let me use yours.")

Of course, it's been almost six hours and one sunset since Kate walked home from school. And the wind has picked up since then. Dry leaves skitter across the pavement, making Kate flinch every time - they've always hated that sound so much.

(Chess used to pick up leaves when they skittered and made Kate flinch like that, and she'd crush them in her fist and dump the fragments on Kate's head. Kate used to pretend to be mad about it, but Chess's laughter as Kate brushed the leaves out of her hair always tugged a smile out of her.)

(Chess’s laugh in general always made Kate smile and made the world seem not so bad. Kate always chalked it up to just the fact that Chess was her best friend, always refusing to consider the alternatives.)

There’s an elementary school not far from Kate’s house. They didn’t go there - it was built when she was in middle school - but they’ve spent countless hours on the field and the playground there, when it was warm and sunny (or when the house got too unbearable). Chess used to come, too, but unlike a lot of the spots where they used to hang out, Kate used to come here alone so much that it doesn’t hurt too bad to be there when Chess is- without Chess.

There’s a low brick wall surrounding the kindergarten playground, and Kate hops up onto it. She tries to sit cross-legged, but almost falls onto the sidewalk, so they just let their legs swing back and forth, kicking against the bricks. This spot is nice - it’s sheltered by the pine trees overhead, and she can see the entire street from here. It’s especially nice on hot summer days, when the shade hits this spot and provides the perfect respite from the sun. Only having one working earbud makes listening to music feel too _off_ , so Kate just sits and drinks in the silence, broken only by the wind and the leaves and the occasional car from the busier street just across the field. There’s no shouts, no yelling, no _voices_.

Just Kate and the quiet.

Kate’s never had a very good sense of time. The seconds and minutes and hours always blur together, and so she always wears a watch to be able to tell.

(“What time is it?” “Um, I dunno.” “Take a guess.” “Uhh… 2:30?” “Kate, it’s almost 4.” “ _What_?”)

According to her watch, it’s almost 10. They wonder if their parents are finished - probably not. She doesn’t know what started the fight, but they sounded so mad she wouldn’t be surprised if things don’t quiet down for a while. That’s fine - it’s not that cold. She’s almost shivering and huddled into their thin flannel, but it’s not that cold.

(“Here, take my jacket. You don’t have one.” “This _is_ a jacket!” “No it isn’t, Kate, that’s a flannel.” “That’s a jacket!” “It’s really not.” “Are you seriously googling it?” “Yep, and Google says it’s not a jacket. Now put this on.” “Ugh, fine. Bossy.” “Say that one more time, I dare you.” “Bossy.” “Hey, I warned you-” “ _Chess_!”)

Nobody’s around when Kate starts to cry. Nobody’s there to dry her tears and crack dumb jokes and show her goofy songs. Nobody’s there to hold them, to keep all the broken pieces from falling apart. It’s just Kate and the silence and the voice in their head that sounds all too much like someone who isn’t here anymore.

(“Hey, shh, it’s okay, I’m here. Why are you crying?” “It’s stupid.” “Anything that makes Kate ‘look at me wrong and I’ll give you a black eye’ Dalton cry can’t be stupid.”) 

~

Reese’s mom has always preferred going to the grocery store at night. She says it’s quieter, and there’s less people, and the roads are less busy. She’s right, of course, and Reese doesn’t really care why, because she likes going to the grocery store at night with her mom. It’s just running errands, but it feels like their thing.

“Oh, I think your dad is texting me, hold on,” Reese’s mom says. She pulls over - even though Reese offers to just read the texts aloud, her mom always insists on stopping the car to do it herself. And it’s not like they’re even dirty or anything - they’re literally just “did you buy lettuce?” But.

Reese sighs and leans against the window, looking around while her mom types. They’re parked beside an elementary school, with pine trees and bronze lettering spelling out the school name. Her eyes are drawn to a figure sitting on the low brick wall, hunched over and wrapped in a blue flannel. One that looks suspiciously like the flannel Kate had today at school.

“Hey, I’ll be right back,” Reese says to her mom, then gets out of the car. It’s probably not Kate - what would Kate be doing at an elementary school at 10 at night? But as Reese gets closer, there’s no denying who it is.

“Kate?” Reese’s voice echoes around the courtyard, a little louder than she’d planned. Kate flinches, then freezes, and looks up. Her eyes are rimmed with red, and there’s sparkling trails on her cheeks - was Kate… crying?

Kate is the one that never cries. Ever. Reese has known them since they were in middle school, and she vividly remembers that time in shop class when Kate accidentally cut themself. Reese remembers the blood dripping onto the table, and how Kate had instinctively dropped the knife they’d been cutting with, and how badly it looked like that had hurt, but Kate didn’t cry. The teacher made Reese take Kate to the nurse’s office, and the nurse had used that antiseptic that always stung, but Kate had just looked away and stared at the wall and hadn’t cried, even though Reese was pretty sure that if it was her, she would’ve bawled.

But Kate’s here, at an elementary school at 10 at night, crying alone.

“What the fuck do you want, Reeses?” Kate asks harshly. The nickname stings as much as ever, but Reese doesn’t turn and leave. Kate deserves help - everyone does.

“Are you okay?” Comfort isn’t Reese’s strong suit, but the last person she tried and failed to comfort was Farrah, and… well. Reese isn’t willing to lose another teammate, no matter how much that teammate hates her.

“Go _away_.” It’s notably not a yes.

“Kate, what’s wrong?” she tries.

“Nothing.” Kate doesn’t wipe away the tear tracks, just glares. “Go away.”

“Uh, this is actually public property, so technically if I wanna stay, I can,” Reese points out. “D’you, uh, want a ride home or something?”

“No. Fuck off.”

“I really don’t know if I should leave you here by yourself…”

Kate looks away. “I don’t care.”

“Kate, you should get home-”

“ _No_.” Kate’s voice is harsh and full of tears, and Reese is slightly taken aback. Kate is angry, but in the cold way - she shouts and says scathing, painful things, but never gets angry to the point of tears.

“Okay, I’m taking you home,” Reese decides. “C’mon. You want shotgun? I’m driving with my mom-”

“I’m not going home.” Kate shakes their head. “Not yet.”

 _Oh shit_.

“Why?” Reese asks carefully. “Is it… safe?”

Kate doesn’t answer for a minute. “It’s fine. Just… loud.”

“It’s the middle of the night…”

“I know.” Kate shrugs. “Still loud.”

“Loud, like- like yelling?”

Kate nods.

“At you?” Reese feels like she’s walking a tightrope, and if she falls, Kate’s the one who gets hurt.

“Not at me. I mean, maybe, but not yet.” Kate grits her teeth. “Go away.”

“Nope, you’re coming home with me.” Reese is a little scared of Kate, but Kate’s always been cold and mean and intimidating. This is a different side of Kate that Reese isn’t afraid of - it’s a side that makes Reese’s heart hurt for them. “This isn’t negotiable.”

For a second, Kate just glares, but then sighs and stands up. “Fine.”

~

Kate and Reese aren’t friends. They don’t text each other, don’t hang out outside of school. But sometimes they eat lunch together - only because nobody else wants to. Sometimes they give each other a ride home - only because walking home is worse. Reese lends Kate her noise-cancelling headphones - only because she hasn’t used them in years.

(Kate still doesn’t consider Reese a friend. Kate still calls her Reeses for months. Kate is still bitter, and angry, and Reese is still afraid of getting on their bad side.)

(But it’s a little different than it used to be.)


End file.
